Gratitude:
It is nice to have days off, even while having a feeling that I am
wasting them.
Acknowledgment:
Four things to acknowledge
this week. 1)My days off will be nothing to brag about – they may
even depress me. 2) Ignoring or air-brushing problems is my way of
dealing with them. 3)I have the seven vices to some degree. I could
certainly say that I don't have them as bad as others, but that would
be a poor way for letting myself off the hook for the ones I do have.
4)The Beatles Song Eleanor Rigby could be updated to include a
passage about a blogger named Andis Kaulins.
Requests:
Please forgive my many
solecisms. I tell you that I do check and re-check my entries for
errors, but I always seem to miss some. Be sure to visit the
new photo blog I have
started not once a week, but every day.
The
AKIC Week in Brief: The Wuxi
Summer came to a definite start this week as the A/C unit in the
office will be on till the end of August. The realization of the
this start made Andis feel more lethargic, but he did have his
vacation to look forward to. (It started on June 22nd
and will run to July 1st,
more or less. Andis will have to go to work on June 27th.)
Andis started
a new blog. Sunday
afternoon, Tony dropped Jenny's Ipad.
The
AKIC Mission: To
be China's leading forum of Gómez-Dávilism and reactionary
intransigence, as well as a provocation to all of AKIC's enemies and
critics.
The
AKIC Motto: Believe in God, trust in Christ, look
with suspicion.
The
AKIC Idiom: Casual
Insouciance and Solecism-ism.
Who
should read AKIC? AKIC is more AK
than C. So don't come here expecting the rantings of a would-be
Sinologist. I just sometimes mention what I happen to see being here
in China. Also, don't expect to read anything about the Expat
community here at AKIC. I keep my contact with foreigners to a
minimum – but then that is like someone declaring his party to be
private even when no one is going to his party anyway. Only kindred
spirits of me should read this blog. That is, flotsam, jetsam,
waifs, lost souls, conservatives, reactionaries, lost-causers,
medievalists, coin-tossers, base brats, marginal humans, watchers,
cranks,walkers, wallflowers, failures, losers, Catholics, solitaries,
and loners.
An
AKIC Glossary
[I
have been thinking that it is silly to put this glossary in each of
my weekly blog entries and that I should set up a page on AKIC
wordpress. However, I am constantly editing the glossary –
something I can't do if I make it a page.]
Gratitude:
will always be the first word of the AKIC weekly blog entry -- it is
the key to happiness.
Acknowledgment and
Request: For me Acknowledgment means
confession; and Request means asking for stuff. GAR [Gratitude,
Acknowledgment, Request] are the simple stages of a prayer which
I came upon following the Jewish World Review site. I used the
GAR format when I delivered the eulogy at my
father's funeral last year.
Solecisms:
I try to rid my blog and writings of these things, but they never
seem to go away.
Jenny is
my wife. She is a Jiangsu woman. Why she puts up with me is a
mystery. I ain't good-looking and I don't have any money.
Her enemies are my enemies. I put up with a lot of isolation for
her.
J: I
will sometimes refer to her that way.
Tony is
my son. If he is annoying or is acting way, way, way
out-of-line, I will spank him -- I don't do this as much as I used
to, having mellowed out in that regard. I actually put this line in
as a dig against anti-spanking activists who are about as useful for
humanity as pacifists and social workers. I put up with a lot of
isolation for Tony as well.
T: I
will sometimes refer to Tony this way.
TKIC: Tony
Kaulins in China. I may be referring to the TKIC blogs or to
Tony when I use TKIC. I am sure you can figure out which
way I am using it from the context.
AKIC: Andis
Kaulins in China. The same applies to AKIC as applies to TKIC.
That is, I may be referring to the AKIC blogs or to myself. AKIC
aspires to be China's leading forum of Gómez-Dávilism
and reactionary intransigence.
My
School is
HyLite English located on Zhongshan Road in Wuxi, China.
Casa
Kaulins is
what I call the apartment I (really my wife) owns.
California
Villa: The English name of the apartment complex the Kaulins
family resides. In Chinese pinyin, it is called Jia Zhou Yang
Fang. (加州洋房）
Train-spotting.
There is a high speed train track running near Casa K. Tony
& I, when we have a chance, love to go there to watch the trains
go by.
Wuxi
（无锡）:
The city where Jenny, Tony & I live. I sometimes call
it the Wux.
Hui
Shan (惠山）:
The district of Wuxi in which we live. Not to be confused with
the Hui Shan Mountain that is in Xihui Park. There isn't a mountain
anywhere in the district.
Ba
Bai Ban (八佰伴）:
Also known as Wuxi Yao Han, Ba Bai Ban is a famous department store
at the corners of Zhongshan Road and Xueqian Road in Downtown Wuxi.
AKIC goes there to buy Tomica and Plarail toys for his son Tony.
The
Square: The Hui Shan People's Square is nearby Casa
Kaulins.
Central
Park: Hui Shan Central Park is the park closest to Casa
Kaulins. It has a playground area and a small lake with beach.
The park is nothing special. The water in the lake is
unbelievably foul. The playground's fixtures are falling
apart. The park is big enough that its narrow paths, that I
would have thought were meant for pedestrians, have cars being driven
on them. The sight of these cars honking at pedestrians to get
out their way disgusts me as much as the park's lake water.
Hui
Shan Wanda （惠山万达）:
A fancy shopping mall and cinema that is near Casa Kaulins. As of
this typing, it is supposed to open June 21.
Century
Times Plaza (Tesco) That is the supermarket that is closest to Casa
Kaulins.
Yanqiao:
a town of Hui Shan District -- not too far from Casa Kaulins.
Qianzhou:
an area or a district or a town that borders on Yanqiao.
Jiangyin
（江阴）:
A city or district next to Wuxi.
Meicun: A
suburb of Wuxi city that is far from the downtown.
Shuo
Feng: Ditto!
Ditto! Agrees
with what has been previously said.
To
do List At work, even though I
am not that busy anymore, I print out a weekly list of things to do
everyday. It is a compulsive-obsessive habit that does give my days
some form.
LECTOR: I
got the idea for Lector, a fictional sparring partner for my blog,
from a
Hilaire Belloc book I had read recently.
DBs:
I will leave it to you to try
and figure out what D & B stand for.
School
Laptop: I like to make note of where I make my notes for my
weekly blog entry. One of the four places is my school laptop.
The other three are: my
home laptop, my
Ipad Mini, and my
Ipod Touch.
Dotdotdot:
This is my favorite social app. It is a nice way to read long form
articles on the Internet that allows you to proclaim to the world
what you are reading. I use the app to read the Catechism and the
writings of Father Schall. I get a new follower seemingly every day.
Python:
A script-writing computer program I am learning to use.
Atftb:
A thought for the blog.
Brandon,
Manitoba, Canada is where my mother Aina lives.
Winnipeg,
Manitoba is where my brother
Ron lives.
Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA is where some of my father's relatives live.
Bao
Bao Sleepy:
What Tony calls it when he sleeps in Daddy's arms or on Daddy's
lap.
David
Warren:
I visit his
website about
five times a day. He a fervent Catholic and reactionary. If
I model myself after anyone, it would be him.
Don
Colacho:
a.k.a. Nicolás Gómez
Dávila. A
South American sage. He died in 1993. He would have been
100 in 2013. I read his aphorisms everyday. He is the
consummate reactionary.
Father
Schall: I am always reading the
site of his which has a huge collection of his writings.
English
Corner: I go to a room and try to talk to a group of
Chinese people in English. Often, they don't understand me and
they have nothing to say about anything.
25,602,
602支，610，81，79，67，118，85,
635：These
are the buses I can take as I go to downtown Wuxi from my home (Casa
Kaulins) the Hui Shan New District. I usually take the 602支
in
the
morning, transferring to the 79, the 81, or the 85 to get to school.
In the evening, I can take the 67, the 79, the 81, the 85 or the 118
to get to the stop where I catch the 635. The 635 is the only bus
running to my area of Wuxi after 800 PM. The 81 bus is a
double-decker – quite the novelty for a guy who spent a lot of his
life in Manitoba. The 25 bus is the cheap 1 RMB that I used to take
all the time but now rarely take.
HM:
Harry Moore is from Brisbane Australia. He had a brief
stint as an English teacher at my school. He sends me
emails occasionally. He was my partner in crime in my
notorious Wuxi
China Expatdom Blog. He suffered a stroke recently
but he still heroically plugs away.
The
Wuxi Peach Maoists: AKIC is proud to be the manager of the
official NFL fantasy football team of Wuxi Expats.
About
Me (Andis):
I
in in China!
我可以写得，在电脑，中文词。我不可以说的中文。我的发音不好。
我妈妈住在加拿大。
我没有中文的老师。我自己交。我妻子想我不说的中文在我们家。她想我和我们儿子说的英文。她和我们儿子说的中文。
我不喜欢共产主义。
Politically
I am Conservative/Reactionary!
Put me down as being more reactionary
than conservative. Many of the things worth preserving have been
destroyed.
I
am Canadian!
Oh, how I love to watch replays of Team Canada
beating the Soviets in 1972!
I
am Latvian (sort of)! My
parents definitely were. I was second generation and grew up
speaking English. I can
count to ten in the language. I can also say hello and good night in
Latvian. But that is about it. I was never in an environment where
I could have learned it. I tried to learn in my twenties but
couldn't pronounce it to save myself. Reading the Black Book of
Communism, I read of a Latvian who played a prominent role in the
Cheka. While it is great that Latvia is independent, it is hard to
look at what happened during the war without feeling sheepish
I
teach English! Teaching
English in China is a free Chinese lesson as it turns out.
How often do I hear a word translated that I had come across in my
private Chinese studies.
I
am not a freak! There are in
fact other people named Andis Kaulins in the world. Another Andis
Kaulins has a site called andiskaulins.com.
I love the fact that reference to AKIC is made in the site's banner.
And as far as I know, I am not related to the Andis Kaulins who is
domiciled in the USA. [LECTOR: You are a freak!]
I
like to Read! Here
is what I had been working my way through the past week:
Don
Colacho's Aphorisms. There are 2,988 of them in this book
that I compiled for myself. I read ten aphorisms at a time.
I cut and paste the better ones -- they are all profound actually --
and I put them in my weekly blog entry. (See below)
Ulysses
by James Joyce. I am following along with Frank
Delaney as he slowly guides podcast listeners through
Joyce's hard-to-read novel. Delaney figures he will have done
his last ReJoyce Podcast in about 22 years. Now that I have
caught up to Delaney's podcast (he completed episode #158 this week),
I am getting ahead him as far as reading the book. I will be
finished reading it, I figure, in a year. I read the novel despite
its many blasphemies. It is best to be aware of this stuff because
the world is full of it, and the world will always find a way of
slapping you in the face with it
The
Holy Bible King James Version. I am reading a
chapter a day of the greatest book of all-time. I finished
reading Letters to the Romans.
Columns
by Father Schall. I have been
able to take all
his archived writings and place them on the Dotdotdot app.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Like Father Schall's writings, I have been able to place them on the
Dotdotdot app.
Pickwick
Papers by Charles Dickens. I wish I could bury myself in this
book at the expense of all else.
The
Black Book of Communism. A must
read, especially for left-wingers. It may smarten some of them up.
Most just change their labels calling themselves socialists,
democratic socialists, middle-of-the-roaders, and progressives,
instead of admitting they were wrong.
I
like to take photos
I
publish them in the following blogs: AKIC
wordpress , TKIC
blogspot,
TKIC
wordpress and Views
of China from Casa Kaulins.
I
like to make videos
Here
is my
Youtube Channel and my
Youku Channel.
Here are my two latest:
Dad
& Son Q&A &
Views
of China from Casa Kaulins #1.
I
like to cut and paste quotations:
Here
are the ones I have chosen this week from Don Colacho:
2381
The only possible progress is the internal progress of each
individual. [I am making no
discernible external progress. Of that there can be no doubt. But
it doesn't matter.]
2395
Intelligence isolates; stupidity brings together.
2396 The ability to consume pornography is the distinctive characteristic of the imbecile. [This week, I had decided to read ten Colacho Aphorisms a day, and choose the best one. Tuesday, I couldn't decide which was better: 2395 or 2396.]
2396 The ability to consume pornography is the distinctive characteristic of the imbecile. [This week, I had decided to read ten Colacho Aphorisms a day, and choose the best one. Tuesday, I couldn't decide which was better: 2395 or 2396.]
2400
What cloisters us gives us the chance to ennoble ourselves. [It
is hard for me to feel ennobled after interacting with anyone other
than my wife and son. Another benefit of being cloistered is that
one doesn't adopt the fashionable stupidities of the day.]
2418
One must live for the moment and for eternity. Not for the
disloyalty of time.
2427
The being one finds oneself to be is also a stranger to us.
[The beings we interact with are also strangers too, but not as
strange as ourselves.]
2439
Avoid repeating a word is the favorite rule of rhetoric of one who
does not know how to write. [I don't know how to write; and the
more I try to and the more I read, the less I realize that I do know.
And that rule, that Colacho mentions, is one that I have tried to
follow often. I can see now why it isn't a good rule, it encourages
pretentious sort of writing, use of jargon, and using words
incorrectly.]
2444
The fool does not concede superiority except to one who exhibits
idiotic refinements. [Ha! So
true!]
Here
are two passages from Saint Paul to his epistle to the Romans:
- Be not wise in your own conceits.
- If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
I
was slow on the uptake in understanding Chinese communism’s
awfulness. I’d been a lefty in my student days without knowing
anything much about China. [My
one problem with this quote
is that he modifies communism with Chinese. Aren't all communisms,
whether Cuban, Russian, or Cambodian awful?]
the
disconcerting barrenness of the Chinese monumental landscape cannot
be read simply as a consequence of the chaotic years of the Maoist
period. It is a feature much more permanent and deep—and it had
already struck Western travelers in the 19th and at the beginning of
the 20th century. [That's why
China is a pile of rubble and will always be a pile of rubble. It is
part of the Chinese character to not like old stuff.]
I
like to keep a journal of my daily activities and any
thoughts that occur to me.
[This
journal records the events that I can talk about. In fact, a lot
happens that I can't talk about, though I try to allude to these
happenings with my thoughts which I will record in this journal. As
well, I don't blog about people I happen to know. I scrupulously try
to avoid mentioning names, except if I happen to have something good
to say about them. [LECTOR: You rarely have anything good to say
about people, I notice. ANDIS: Uh-huh!]]
Monday
[June 17]
I
don't work today & Tony goes to school, but I must be on my toes
all the same. Jenny isn't about to let me laze about the house, and
I have got some things I would like to do like study Chinese, read
Pickwick Papers, do some Python programming, watch Game of Thrones,
and blog of course.
Last
night, I slapped together a video which I put on Youtube
and Youku.
In the ten hours, it has been on the 'net, The
Bridge to Qianzhou has garnered about ten views. I have actually
had a couple of videos get over a thousand views on Youku: Tony
and his Toys and The
Greatest Comeback in Toy Train History.
I
am a bit of a tweetybird. That is, I do tweet on Twitter. Anytime,
I make an entry to a wordpress blog, a tweet is produced. My tweeter
name is wuxiandis.
I
am also on Facebook. Look for Andis Edmunds Kaulins if you want to
friend me. Again, anytime I make an entry to my wordpress blog, the
fact of the publishing is announced on Facebook. I may have a
hundred friends of course I did go through a process of de-friending
a bunch of Wuxi Expats.
Tuesday
[June 18]
[Home
Laptop]
I
work today 1300 to 2100.
The
temperatures outside are in the mid-thirties. It is unbearably
humid. Wuxi carpetbaggers -- I hesitate to call them Wuxi Expats –
leave Wuxi at this time of year. I don't have a choice and so I am
stuck here, but damn those who don't stick around and yet claim to be
Wuxi Expats – you are nothing but opportunistic carpetbaggers!
Tony
comes home from school yesterday and immediately plays with his toy
cars and firetrucks, parking them in nice lineups, as those who may
follow his two photo
blogs may know.
Yesterday,
I stayed at home, trying to not sweat. I watched a few episodes of
the second season of the Game of Thrones. They finally introduced a
black character – something which the first season lacked. There
were also a bunch of butch lesbians introduced as well. The
characters are portrayed from a modern perspective.
BTW,
I have added a new feature to TKIC Blogspot. Tony
says the darnedest things.
I
was told that were beavers in Jiangsu – that is that dam-building
creature that is a symbol of Canada and featured on the Canadian
five-cent coin. There may be some now in Jiangsu, but they are very
rare.
A
weasel was roaming the first floor of the school last week. These
longish squirrel-like creatures are not an uncommon sight in the Wux.
[School
Laptop]
My
wife had watched Season One of Game of Thrones but hadn't actually
seen the climactic scene with the nude woman and the three dragons.
That scene had been censored on the Chinese website where my wife had
been watching the series. I have complained about the nudity and the
sex in the series, but that doesn't mean I support the censorship or
think of myself as a prude. My complaint has been that the nudity
and the sex really don't advance the plot – the explicit scenes are
there because of some formula it seems to me. Sex having been around
for as long as man has, there isn't much you can do with it after
awhile, except try to pile outlandish upon outlandish so that you are
left with nothing but perversions to show. Sex is a small part of
the human drama and yet it has been turned into a God.
The
only thing that can be said for the Wuxi heat is that woman are
better to look at, as they wear less clothing and their curves really
show up.
To
be with the Moderns, you have to give softballish advice that seems
utterly pointless. What should often be said to people these days is
this: “You are a knucklehead who must change his ways!” This is
a harsh thing to say, but in many cases it is true and the only thing
that can be said. There is no point in trying to sugar coat things
so that people's self-esteem is not damaged. The fact of the matter
is that most people's existences don't matter in this life – they
just aren't important as individuals to very many people except
hopefully their parents and friends. Why should you be told that you
are appreciated when you are just a body. Why will being lied to
really change things.
Better
for them to know that they have souls and they better look after
them. If they don't realize this, they can't be helped, only prayed
for.
The
people who think there are too many people in the world, should begin
by criticizing their parents for having ever brought them into the
world.
The
orifice is air-conditioned. It is okay for now but what will it mean
later when I get into the harsh heat?
Wednesday
[June 19]
[School
Laptop]
I
work 1300 to 2100. I got to school at elevenish. It was humid at
home and I had things to do and things that I could do, here. [Should
I put in the last comma?]
Statement:
I don't understand how people can worship something that doesn't
exist.
Response:
The “I don't understand” in your statement means two things:
first, you think you are superior to people who are religious; and
secondly, you are very stupid. If you are in fact superior to these
people, you should be able to understand them. Obviously, they have
faith that what you think doesn't exist does. Best for you to say
you don't think God exists, and leave it at that. Your conceit
belies your stupidity. [LECTOR: That last sentence is true of
you as well. ANDIS: No doubt.]
I
just taught a student (female) who is a pitcher, that be a baseball
pitcher, at some sort of sports school. She said her school is
connected to MLB. She couldn't tell me who her favorite baseball
player or team was, however. [My favorite player was Gary Carter. I
couldn't tell you who I currently like. My favorite teams were the
Expos, the Mariners, and the Jays at times. I couldn't tell you
which team I like now. More than anything, I don't like it when the
Rays, the Marlins, or the Diamondbacks do well.]
Thursday
[June 20]
[School
Laptop]
I
work 1000 to 2100 today
I
had the 早晨全餐
(big
breakfast) at McDonald’s this morning. It cost me 22 rmb, up from
the 21.5 rmb that it was last week.
Oh
yes. The pinyin for the big breakfast word is zao chen quan can.
No
thoughts to type in this blog early in the morning.
I
will be doing an SPC on Art this afternoon. Not Art Linkletter or
Art Garfunkel but the Art that is contained in the word Artifice. [I
was thinking to take the photos I was using for the class and putting
them in my teaching English blog, but I thought better of it.]
I
noticed a lot of teenagers on buses and at McDonald's – I normally
wouldn't see any. It must mean that their summer vacations are
beginning.
Another
slow day at school. Nothing to blog about.
One
day, I will become social again. Just not today. I keep hearing
stories of how fucked the world is, and people are becoming more
barbaric. Any interactions I have only seem to confirm this, and I
feel naïve to the point of imbecility of actually seeing what others
are up to.
Later,
in the evening today, I will teach a class about culture. It is a
big word, I will tell them, and I will use it in many ways.
The
Stanley Cup Final is tied at two games a piece. I don't know who I
would like to see win it. Both the Black Hawks and the Bruins would
be aesthetically fine looking champions I think. Maybe the series
goes to seven with the final game going to overtime. That would be
cool.
I
was all sore after doing my afternoon SPC which was about art.
Would
it be better if I tried to be a stand-up comedian than an English
teacher? I always have to restrain myself in an English class
because I have to think about whether the students will understand me
or not. Of course, if I was talking to an English speaking audience,
they would understand me which would be a worse thing.
I
am watching the sixth episode of the second season of Game of
Thrones.
Friday
[June 21]
[School
Laptop]
I
work 1100 to 2100. I get to school at 910. [LECTOR: Why? ANDIS:
What else am I going to do? LECTOR: Does it matter? ANDIS: To me,
yes. In the big scheme of things, no.]
We
are religious animals. Man, that is. It is part of our nature.
That is why I think that to be an avowed atheist is perverse.
Atheism is an inclination we have, like to murder and to steal. If
we give in to all our inclinations, we become perverse. And we
worship even when we think we don't. We just worship different Gods.
In China, they tried to make a God of Chairman Mao. It didn't work
out for them, so now they worship money.
The
Hui Shan Wanda Plaza, a big luxurious shopping mall has its grand
opening today. Because I am downtown I won't be going. I don't plan
to go there tomorrow or the day after that either. It will be
crowded I imagine, and crowds destroy the purpose of anything they
converge on.
The
strange thing is that there is another shopping mall in the area that
has been under construction for all the time I have been going to
Casa Kaulins. I figure this mall has been under construction for
seven years. In an age where people prefer to shop on taobao and not
in shops and stores, you have to wonder if this mall, whenever it is
finished being constructed, will be needed.
I
just opened an email from Taki's magazine. John Derbyshire has an
article entitled the
Man who blew the lid off Maoism.
Peasant
types that I had seen in my wife's home village. Some of them had
shrines of Chairman Mao in their homes. How much better off they
would have been to have worshiped more traditional ones.
Saturday[June
22]
[Home
Laptop]
I
am not working today. My vacation days begin.
There
were a lot of people at the opening of the Hui Shan Wanda Plaza. So,
I was told by my wife and my 635 bus companion.
What
to do today? I don't know.
Sunday
[June 23]
[Home
Laptop]
I
don't work today. It is the second of period of days off and
vacation time taken. Today is really just my day off. I have a
vague plan to go to the Wanda today, but given how the
place is so crowded for its opening weekend, I may not bother.
Tony however wants to go. I have found out, by asking students who
are parents children of similar ages, that children love crowds but
their parents don't.
If
yesterday is any indication, this vacation will be boring in the
doing and then in the retelling. I found myself having to sit around
while Tony played with my Ipad. I found myself doing a lot of
waiting whether it be for a bus to come, for a restaurant to open, or
for one of the other two members of Canadian-Chinese-Latvian Family
Kaulins to finish what they were doing. I found myself drifting
aimlessly in a shopping area. I found myself sitting in a room with
a crowd of screaming parents and screaming children. Tony goes back
to school on Monday so I will have time to work on my projects, but I
won't be going anywhere. Next Saturday, I will attending a
performance of Tony's
dance class. I had been hoping to spent the weekend in Shanghai,
so when my wife asked me if I thought it was a good idea to attend, I
started to pout. [LECTOR: You are a bad selfish parent! ANDIS:
No! Children performing is an awful thing to behold.]
Yesterday,
I didn't get a chance to watch an episode of Game of Thrones.
Today,
I finished watching the ninth episode of the second season.
Yesterday,
I started reading the Black Book of Communism. I then took a look at
a
thing and wanted to spit. I wish that there was a symbol of
China that is universally recognized and has nothing to do with the
party!
Yesterday
and today, I took a lot of photos for my
new blog. It was annoying process because when you take the time
to take a photo, nothing much of interest happens outside the
apartment. When something interesting does happen, it happens so
quickly that it is too late to bring out a camera.
I
saw four people riding an ebike: two adult woman with two small
children squeezed in-between. I couldn't take a photo.
I
hear thunder – 830 am.
I
won't go to Wanda today. It is just a shopping mall. Sure, it has a
cinema, but it is one that will have Chinese audiences who don't know
how to behave in cinemas.
I
phoned my Mom last night. She tells me that there is heavy rain in
Brandon, and that the downtown of Calgary is flooded so that 100,000
people have to be evacuated. Aunt Dzidra, her older sister, hangs in
there at the hospital. Dzidra suffers from pancreatic cancer. Uncle
Red, her one brother, got back from the hospital and has been with
equipped with a walker to get around.
My
wife was visibly angry when she heard the story of two children in
Nanjing, two and six years of age, who had been ignored by their
parents and so died of starvation. The parents were drug addicts –
the lowest of the low. My first reaction was to tell her that
stories like this are not uncommon in the West. I realized that it
was a good thing that I had stayed away from bars for these negligent
parents are the sort of people you will encounter in bars. I now
think about why my wife took the news so personal – she was pawned
off by her natural parents because she the third girl they had had.
Furthermore, the society she grew up in often teased her for being an
unwanted child. [LECTOR: Do you think the case of the two parents
is an argument for the necessity of abortion. ANDIS: WTF are you
saying? LECTOR: It would have been better that these children
hadn't been born for they suffered so much. ANDIS: It would have
been better if the parents had lived in a culture that valued
children and not saw them as a burden.]
I
don't think China has too many people, even though I hate crowds of
Chinese and try to avoid them. I tell the students that China could
have two billion people no problem. (And BTW, how many people are
there really in China? How can they make an actual count when it is
just so easy for many to hide from the counters.) Despite the large
amount of people here, I do find I have plenty of space to be
solitary here. I can often be by myself for hours on end.
To
say there are too many people in the world is barbaric, selfish,
inhumane and fascist. People, who accept this idea that there are
too many people, do so unthinkingly. I have come to the realization
that people who really believe this line and devote their lives to
are power-seeking individuals who want to be part of a totalitarian
political system. Nothing could be better for a bureaucratic
organization to advance its aims, to gain more power than to advance
the notion that the Earth has too many humans. It is a way of
justifying murder whether through abortion or genocides based on
racial or class hatred.
What
was the difference between the genocides of the Nazis and the
Leftists? The Nazis exterminated people because of their racial or
physical status. The Leftists slaughtered people because of their
class or their thoughts. Really, what was the difference?
A
thought I should have recorded earlier in the week after I had done
an English Topic with the topic of Art. I had shown the students a
photo of graffiti. I said it wasn't art because it was vandalism and
thus not truly beautiful. I then thought this: tattoos aren't art
either for like graffiti, they are vandalism, in fact a vandalism of
the body.
The
Lanesters of Game of Thrones are like the Clintons, I think.
Jamie Lanester and his sister to be exact. An incestuous
relationship based on a desire for power. Perhaps, Bill and Hilary
are siblings.
Went to 外婆家 on Saturday. That be the Grandma's Restaurant that is in the Nanchang Market area. We went there at 345 pm and waited at seats by the reception desk till the restaurant opened at 430.
I don't use my mobile phone much. Good thing: those who do, strut arrogantly, their lips pouting with a sense of a superiority and disdainfulness.
Went to 外婆家 on Saturday. That be the Grandma's Restaurant that is in the Nanchang Market area. We went there at 345 pm and waited at seats by the reception desk till the restaurant opened at 430.
I don't use my mobile phone much. Good thing: those who do, strut arrogantly, their lips pouting with a sense of a superiority and disdainfulness.
I
saw a VW Beetle ride in front of Casa Kaulins. Unfortunately, I
wasn't able to take a photo.
Tony
dropped Jenny's Ipad. He is trouble for awhile. He will be forced
to watch television instead of playing with the computer or the
laptop.
[LECTOR:
Do you think anyone reads this blog? You only had 39 views of last
week's entry. Why do you spend so much time on something that yields
no benefit and if anything, only re-enforces the fact that you are
one lonely and isolated person? ANDIS: I will let you have the last
word. LECTOR: Thanks! ANDIS: You are welcome. LECTOR: Well
then! Let me have the last word!!! ANDIS: Okay..... oops.
LECTOR: No one reads your fucking blog!!!]
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